The Betas Forbidden Obsession

Phoenix Rising: The Scarred Heiress's Revenge

Xiao Hong Mao

I lived as the "scarred ghost" of the Stephens penthouse, a wife kept in the shadows because my facial burns offended my billionaire husband's aesthetic. For years, I endured Kason's coldness and my family's abuse, a submissive puppet who believed she had nowhere else to go. The end came with a blue folder tossed onto my silk sheets. Kason's mistress was back, and he wanted me out by sunset, offering a five-million-dollar "silence fee" to go hide my face in the countryside. The betrayal cut deep when I discovered my father had already traded my divorce for a corporate bailout. My step-sister mocked my "trashy" appearance at a high-end boutique, while the sales staff treated me like a common thief. At home, my father threatened to cut off my mother's life-saving medicine unless I crawled back to Kason to beg for a better deal. I was the girl who took the blame for a fire she didn't start, the wife who worshipped a man who never looked her in the eye, and the daughter used as a human bargaining chip. I was supposed to be broken, penniless, and desperate. But the woman who stood up wasn't the weak Elease Finch anymore; she was Phoenix, a tactical predator with a $500 million secret. I signed the divorce papers without a single tear, walked past my stunned husband, and wiped the Finch family's bank accounts clean with a few taps on my phone. "Your money is dirty," I told Kason with a cold smile. "I prefer clean hands." The cage is open, the hunt has begun, and I'm starting with the people who thought a scar made me weak.

Modern Revenge

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ALEXANDER'S POV

Maybe I had waited too long to bring the whole thing up. The truth was, I wanted to keep them out of it for as long as possible, my closest friends, my greatest allies. I knew they wouldn't take it well that someone was trying to kill me.

Especially when that someone was Vincent Graves, the most notorious hitman in the business.

But I was sure now, and there was no more time to waste.

The five of us were having brunch at a little downtown cafe, the kind that you couldn't find unless you knew it was there. The waiters here were like family, and so it felt like the safest place to begin to plan things-out on the patio under a large, sun-bleached umbrella.

"There's something I need to tell you, the reason I brought you all here today," I said, my serious tone.

The conversation around the table fell silent and they all turned to look at me.

Caleb's face, as usual, was hard as a rock and difficult to read. I trusted the Russian man's judgment though, and I knew he would be the first to protect me.

"What? You mean you don't just want to spend time with us?" Elias jokes, earning him a stern look from Jonah. At thirty he was the youngest of the group, and this tended to show through his playful demeanor.

Jonah, on the other hand, was always serious. Not unreadable like Caleb, but instead like a calm and sturdy boulder that I always knew I could count on.

"Now is not the time, Elias," Luca said, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. He was the only one who I had told beforehand. I needed him to be able to gather intel so we could properly plan things out. The information we had been able to find on Vicent was scarce, but it was better than nothing.

"What is it?" Jonah asked, leaning towards me looking expectant. He probably had some idea of what was going on, he was intuitive like that.He had known me for the longest, too, and I was sure that had something to do with it.

After all, I didn't think of myself as a man that's easy to read, even if I am more emotive than Caleb.

"I just got it confirmed yesterday, so we still have time," I began, looking at each of them individually.

"But I'm definitely being targeted."

"By who?" Caleb asked, his voice gruff and deep.

"Vincent Graves."

There was a collective groan all around the table.

"Shit, that sucks," Elias said.

"Nathan, that dirty bastard."

"Let's not jump to conclusions yet," Luca said. He always liked to reason things through, and not cause unnecessary conflict.

"We don't know for sure if Nathan is the one who sent him."

"But who else would?"

"It's true that Nathan has the means and the motive to send Vincent after Alex," Jonah said. He looked deep in thought, his forehead wrinkling with lines of determination and contemplation.

Nathan Kane could be called my rival in the business. There were two large gangs that ran the streets of Los Angeles when it came to drugs. He led one of them, and I led the other.

I had known for a while that Nathan was tired of the competition, and of the ways that I kept his gang in check, but I hadn't thought he would resort to hiring a hitman this quickly.

After all, I had my Four, the friends that were with me now, and they wouldn't just let the gang go to ruins if I was shot and killed.

No, I'd reckon if I was, Nathan would have more to contend with than he had bargained for.

"The issue right now is not if it's Nathan sending Vincent after me," I said.

"The issue is that Vincent is going to try to kill me. Unfortunately for him, we know what's going on, so we have the advantage. So right now, we need to figure out what we want to do about it."

"Now, we don't have much information about him," Luca said.

"We know he started as a hitman to provide for his family. He had a wife, dead now, and still has a daughter. As far as I know, she has no idea what her father does for a living."

"Let's keep her out of it then," Jonah said. "I would hate to drag an innocent person into this, even if she is his daughter."

"Agreed," I said.

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